Tuesday, August 12, 2008

What can you tell about a person from the recipes they clip? Well, you can tell a lot about their culinary interests, shopping habits, what they liked to eat and cook and maybe learn something about their kitchen appliances.

Today I got this lost recipe request:

“Back in the 80's maybe early 90's there were yellow boxes of Shredded Wheat cereal. These were fairly good size large biscuits at the time, not bite size. On the box was a recipe for a somewhat healthy bar. It involved breaking up the biscuits, adding nuts, honey and can’t remember what else. You then pressed the mixture into a 13 x 9 baking dish and baked it for a short time. I loved these and would like the recipe again. I sent Nabisco or Post, I can’t remember which, a note a year or so ago and they sent back some recipe that was not it. Again this was on the box and I remember it being yellow and an odd shape due to the large biscuits. Thanks for any help, Kevin”

In my recipe collection I have a big box packed with clipped recipes – all from one person, so I pulled it out and started sorting through it. I’ve sorted through it before, but I’ve never really thought about the original sources of all these clipped recipes.

Now I can tell you that the cook who clipped these recipes never walked past a free recipe card at her local Piggly Wiggly grocery store; she read Better Homes and Garden often and sometimes Southern Living. Cool Whip was a regular purchase for her and she had an electric skill and liked to use it. Her family liked Chili and Mac&Cheese. She and her friends shared a lot of recipes and she loved to read the home section of her newspaper – especially the recipes. She was trying to get more fish into her diet, collecting salmon recipes and the lids of oyster cans (they had recipes on them). And she liked chocolate.

But she didn’t eat Shredded Wheat! So if the recipe Kevin is looking for sounds familiar, please send it to me and I will post it. Or you can post it in the comments.

Sadly, when when the cook who clipped all these 100s of recipes went to join the great majority, there was nobody who wanted her recipes and they were rescued from the trash by someone who passed them on to me. The moral of this story is -- share your recipes while you can and submit your favorite recipes and their stories to HeritageRecipes.com.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Today I received a question about how much is a gill.Wayne writes: "I have a recipe book dating back to WW2 era.In it there are recipes calling for the measurement of gil. In one recipe it calls for "1 gil of olive oil." Can you explain what a gil is ? Thank You"

I pulled out one of my favorite old cookbooks - the wartime edition of "Victory, Binding of the American Woman's Cook Book," edited by Ruth Berolzheimer and published in 1942. I love the inside jacket leaf which read "Food Will Win the War and Write the Peace. You need not sacrifice good nutrition nor good health because of wartime food scarcities and rising costs." Over the years I have found many good recipes in this cookbook.

And in this cookbook is where a found a definition of a "gill" -- 4 gills equal of pint and 1/2 cup equal 1 gill.

Wikipedia has an informative write up on gills -- as a measurement. It notes that in the US a gill is equal to 4 US fluid ounces but in Imperial (British) measurements it is equal to 5 Imperial fluid ounces. And if you want to see gill used in a song -- check out the lyrics to "Good Luck to the Barley Mow." Isn't Wikipedia great!

The search is also on for a lost lemon cake recipe...here's the request:"This recipe was on the back of Mrs Tucker's shortening when it came in buckets... can't find my recipe. It's called lemon semplisity cake.Please check out other recent posts for lost recipes...and post them in the comment section! And now it's time to pick plums.